


It Went Well

by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Armin's also an ice skater, Eren's just a college student, Eventual Smut, Ice Skating AU, Levi is an ice skater, M/M, The rating will go up eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-03
Updated: 2014-03-19
Packaged: 2018-01-14 09:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1261972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Eren has to bring Armin something he forgot for practice, he meets the other skater his friend is training with - a short man with a beautiful face and an ugly attitude.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic that I'm putting on the internet, and I have almost no plans for where it is going to go. So if you have any ideas, let me know. I have Chapter 2 written (hopefully it will be up soon) and none of this is beta-read.  
> My plans so far are that eventually:  
>       • Eren and Levi frickle-frackle  
>       • Connie is a Zamboni driver
> 
> My tumblr is downtheupstairs if you want to follow or whatever!

      Eren didn’t know how Armin made the trek to the rink every morning and got there at six. Granted, Armin had a car and Eren had had to take the bus, which included two transfers, so that probably cut down the commute a good amount, but still. Why did this place have to be on the very outskirts of the city? He supposed it would be too expensive to have a building this big in the middle of a city block, and it just spoke to Armin’s dedication that he was willing to come out here every morning. Granted, Armin most likely would have lived somewhere much closer if he wasn’t sharing an apartment with Eren and Mikasa, who had wanted to live closer to their school. If Armin was living on his own, he’d have chosen someplace in between. Eren had no clue how Armin juggled going to college part-time, a job, and training. Eren could barely handle just his classes and his own job. He couldn’t imagine getting up every morning and skating, too. But there was a reason that Armin was on the track to the Olympics and Eren was just a mediocre student. 

      The least he could do to help his friend out was to bring him the gym bag Armin had forgot when he left that morning. It was only out of the goodness of his heart and Mikasa’s threatening to beat him up that he had agreed to spend his glorious morning of sleep heading out to the middle of nowhere. Armin had frantically called Mikasa, who he knew would be awake because she had an early shift at work, who in turned none-so-gently woke up Eren and forced him out of bed. 

      At least he was awake now. Between the jolting of the bus, having given up his seat to a mom and her kids, and the loud music he was listening to, he was by now completely awake. And he was almost there.

      The building itself – three blocks from the bus stop – looked a bit like a warehouse. It was kind of depressing. If it hadn’t been for the small sign above a plain white door that read “LEGION RINK,” Eren would have missed the place entirely. 

      The entryway was cramped and not what Eren had expected at all from the large building. He quickly realized he had no clue where exactly he was supposed to go. He took out his phone to turn off his music and text Armin to ask him where he was, but before he could type out the message he heard someone calling over to him from a reception area he’d completely overlooked previously.

      “Excuse me!” called the girl, who had brown hair in a ponytail and was wiping crumbs from her cheek. She’d been in the middle of eating a bagel when she had started talking. When Eren looked over at her, realizing she was talking to him, she continued apologetically, “I’m sorry, but you can’t practice now. The rink’s being used for training.”

      Eren was confused for a minute until he realized that she probably thought from his bag that he had come to skate. He was quick to correct her. “Oh, no! I’m not here for that. I’m… My friend is here. I’m dropping this off. Armin Arlert?” It was a jilted explanation, but Eren was thrown enough by the strange situation and maybe the girl would know where he could find Armin so he could start the trek back and maybe catch an hour of sleep before his first class of the day. 

      “Oh!” The girl perked up in understanding. “Armin! Yeah, he’s probably either out by the rink or in the gym. It’s-“ She started to point to give directions but seemed to change her mind. “Know what? I’ll just show you.” She stood up from her desk and took her bagel with her as she came out from the little reception room into the entryway. She led Eren down a narrow hallway. “I’m Sasha, by the way.”

      “Eren,” the boy offered, distracted by the photos hanging on the walls of different skaters who had trained here winning medals. Eren had known that this place was known for training some good skaters, but he hadn’t realized just how many award-winning skaters had come out of this rink. And of course he’d known that Armin was good, but it had always seemed a little crazy to think that he’d be able to go to the Olympics one day. Eren was beginning to think it wasn’t such an insane idea.

      Eventually they came to a set of double doors that Sasha led them through into the rink area. It was huge, and obviously took up the majority of the building, which was to be expected. Gliding around the rink was a small man with black hair. Eren couldn’t see his features very well for how fast he was going, every once in a while going into a loop or a spin. He was obviously practicing a program, if the music playing over the rink speakers and the fluidity of the routine was anything to go off of. Eren found himself entranced. He had watched Armin skate before, been to his competitions (he tended to sleep through everyone’s performance but Armin’s), but this was different. No offense to Armin, but he was nowhere near as good as this guy.

      Eren was pulled out of his trance when he heard his roommate calling him, and he forced his eyes off the skater in the rink to see Armin hurrying towards him, still looking as frantic as he had apparently sounded on the phone that morning. The boy nearly ran into Eren in his hurry. 

      “Thank you thank you thank you!” Armin said as he tugged the bag off Eren’s arm. “I can’t believe I forgot this! I would have gone back myself but then I didn’t want to waste the training time so I spent most of it in the gym but then Erwin told me to come watch Levi and now you’re here and you brought my skates and thank you, you are my savior.” Eren didn’t think Armin took a single breath during his explanation, and he chuckled a bit at how frazzled his roommate was.

      “Don’t worry about it. I’m just gonna head out now. I think there’s a bus in like half an hour but I don’t know for sure so I’m just gonna wait.”

      “No!” Armin exclaimed. “You don’t have to do that. It’ll take longer to wait for the bus and take that back than if you just waited here. I can drive you when I’m done. It’ll only be like an hour or so. Besides, we can stop at Dunkin on the way back. I think I owe you a coffee.

      Eren smiled. “Ok. Um… where should I wait?”

      “Oh, you can just sit in the bleachers over there.” Eren looked to where Armin pointed at a set of small bleachers along one side of the rink. In all his concentration on the skater before, he hadn’t looked at the rest of the room. “Yeah, just sit over there and watch. Or sleep or whatever. I gotta go.” And with that, Armin rushed away. Eren noticed that Sasha probably went back to the reception area and he was now alone. He made his way over to the bleachers and sat a couple rows from the front, feeling awkward at being the only spectator.

      He realized soon that the music had stopped. The skater from before posed in the middle of the ice, and suddenly Eren heard a slow clapping. When he looked for the source, he saw that it was from a tall blond man wearing a parka standing by the edge of one of the entrances to the ice. “Good,” the man called to the skater, who had stopped posing. “Very good.”

      The skater glided over to the man and stopped right in front of the wall. This close, Eren could see delicate features pinched into a scowl. “Tch,” the skater said. “I didn’t have enough power going into the third jump. It could have been higher.”

      The blond man frowned. “You’re too hard on yourself sometimes. You should learn to take a compliment.”

      The skater’s scowl deepened. “I’ll take it when I deserve it, old man.”

      Eren hadn’t realized he was staring at the two until the skater’s gaze turned to settle on him. It was intimidating and Eren found himself blushing and looking at his phone as a distraction. He decided that he shouldn’t be eavesdropping on their conversation anyway and so he put his headphones back in and turned his music on again, leaning back against the empty row of bleachers behind him and closing his eyes.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

      Eren didn’t realize he had fallen asleep until the jolting of the bleacher caused by someone quickly sitting down woke him. He opened his eyes and pulled one of his headphones out of his ear, and was surprised to find when he sat up that the person sitting about a foot away from him wasn’t Armin but the skater from before. Eren blinked as he woke up and processed what was going on. The skater had rubber covers on his blades and was working on unlacing the boots. Eren found himself staring sleepily for a bit until he felt the skater glance his way, whereupon he quickly shifted his gaze to the ice in front of him. Armin was practicing now. He wasn’t going through a full routine but rather seemed to be working on one particular jump. Still, it kept him from staring at the oh my God so hot skater beside him, so he turned off his music and watched Armin repeat the jump after the blond man from the sidelines – who Eren assumed now was the coach – called out to him with suggestions on how to improve.

      Armin’s practice couldn’t hold Eren’s attention for long, however, and he found his eyes being pulled back to the man beside him. He tried not to turn his head so he wouldn’t be obviously staring, but out of the corner of his eye he could see what looked like a recently-trimmed undercut and pale skin and long, skinny fingers.

      “You’re going to hurt your eyes like that.”

      Eren’s head snapped to follow his gaze as he jumped in his seat. He didn’t think his staring had been that obvious, was it? He met the man’s eyes for a second before Eren turned to stare at his hands in his lap, feeling guilty at having been caught. The silence between them that had previously only been awkward was now stressful. Eventually, Eren decided it was best that he at least say something. He shyly looked back to the man, who had resumed removing his skates.

      “I saw you skate earlier. You’re really good.”

      The man just scoffed, and Eren didn’t know what to make of that, so he looked back at his lap. The silence stretched on, but it went back to being simply awkward, so it he didn’t mind it too much.

      A few minutes later, the man beside him finished taking off his skates – something Eren noticed he did with great care – and spoke.

      “I didn’t know Erwin was taking on another brat.”

      It took Eren a minute to understand what the man was saying, and he spent that whole minute looking at the skater with a furrowed brow and his head cocked to the side. He eventually realized the man thought that he was a skater.

      “Oh! No, I’m not a skater. I was just dropping something off for Armin and he’s going to give me a ride home, so…” Eren let his hand, which he had used to point to Armin when he mentioned him, drop back in his lap as he let his sentence trail off.

      The skater nodded slowly and then sized Eren up. “Should’ve known,” he said, picking up his skates and beginning to stand. “You’re too scrawny.”

      Eren knew he should have made some sort of retort as the man walked out of the room, but instead found his jaw slack and his eyes staring at where the man had been. He couldn’t believe he’d just been called scrawny. He worked out. Sometimes. But he knew he was taller than that other guy had been, so who’s a shorty like that to insult him? Unfortunately, Eren didn’t think to say anything like that until the door was swinging shut behind the man. So instead of saying anything, Eren closed his mouth and, with a huff, turned back to face the ice and hope that Armin is almost done practicing.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

      Thankfully, Armin had been almost done, and less than half an hour later they were in Armin’s car headed back to the apartment. Eren’s mind was still reeling with thoughts of the other skater from before. He would say that they were all angry thoughts about having been insulted but… well, that would be a lie. He couldn’t help but mentally review how graceful he’d been on the ice and how he was beautiful both from afar and up close.

      Apparently Armin noticed that Eren was deep in thought. “You look constipated,” he said, glancing at Eren and then back at the road. “What are you thinking so hard about?”

      “Nothing,” Eren said, even though he knew Armin would know that’s a lie. Before Armin could call him out on his bullshit, Eren added, “That other skater guy who was there? What’s his deal?”

      Armin was surprised. “You mean Levi?” Eren shrugged; he didn’t know the guy’s name, but that seemed like it could fit. “What about ‘his deal’?” 

      “I dunno, he sat next to me earlier but didn’t say anything until he asked me if I was a new skater and then he called me scrawny.” Eren didn’t want to seem like he was whining about being insulted, but he kind of was.

      Armin chuckled. “Yeah, Levi’s like that. He’s… a hard person to get along with. But he’s an amazing skater. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of him. He won silver at the last Olympics.”

      Eren’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. “What?!” he spluttered. “Silver?! And you’re training with him?!”

      As he pulled into the parking lot at their complex, Armin rolled his eyes. “Thanks for your vote of confidence in my skating abilities, Eren.”

      “No no no!” Eren backtracked. “I didn’t mean that! I just… wow. That’s amazing.”

      “Yeah,” Armin agreed. “That’s why training with Erwin costs an arm and a leg. Speaking of which, I have to be at work soon.”

      Eren took the not-so-subtle hint to leave the car and said his goodbyes before going up to the apartment to get his stuff for school. Later, he wasn’t able to concentrate on his classes. His mind was instead filled with thoughts of the award-winning skater he’d met earlier that day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren pisses Levi off. Levi steals Eren's phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, another chapter already! I had a snow day today so instead of writing the 5 poems I need to have for a creative writing workshop tomorrow, I wrote more of this XD
> 
> Also there's subtle Winmin because there is subtle Winmin in this story. I may eventually write some side stories with them. But it's not enough (not even really Winmin yet) to tag it. Thought I'd let you know here, though.
> 
> Enjoy and feel free to comment or whatever!

            Eren would be lying if he said he wasn’t hoping to see Levi again. So if he happened to suggest to Armin that they go get lunch one Saturday after his practice, and he insisted that he’d meet Armin at the rink because “there’s this place nearby the rink that I’ve heard is good and cheap and we should try it out,” well, it _might_ have had a little bit to do with Levi. And if Eren’s Youtube history now showed about an hour’s worth of videos of Levi skating, he _might_ have been interested for reasons other than that “he was interested to see who Armin was skating with,” as he’d kept telling himself. Reasons like the graceful way he glided across the ice. Like the powerful way he propelled himself into the air during his jumps. Like the way he practically turned into a blur he spun so fast sometimes. Eren knew next to nothing about ice-skating, but he knew Levi was good. And beautiful.

            The long bus rides to get to the rink didn’t seem nearly as bad the second time Eren was taking them, partly because he had looked up the bus schedules online before he left and timed his trip better, and partly because he was excited about the chance of seeing Levi – though he would only admit to the first. It was much easier to find the rink this time, and Eren entered to see that Sasha was at the desk again.

            “Hi,” he said, eager to see if Levi was skating, but not wanting to _seem_ eager. “I’m just waiting for Armin to finish up?” He phrased it as a question, itching to get to the actual rink, but wanting to make sure it was okay.

            Sasha appeared to remember Eren and perked up when she saw him. She was eating again and she waved at him as she swallowed her bite. “You can go on in,” she said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the ice.

            Eren thanked her and headed to the ice, thankful for the obvious double doors letting him know where it was. Unfortunately, Levi wasn’t on the ice when Eren entered. He was, however, sitting on the bleachers, watching Armin practice. Eren looked at the ice and watched Armin for a minute too, shocked – though he knew he shouldn’t be, as he’s seen Armin skate before – at how good he was. He wasn’t quite as good as Levi, Eren thought, but still pretty good.

            After a moment of that, Eren decided to go sit on the bleachers to wait. It just so happened that where he decided to sit was right next to Levi. The man looked at Eren when he felt him sit down and stared for a minute.

            “Arlert forget something again?”

            Eren, who had been focusing on not looking at Levi and his beautiful face, was thrown by the question. It took him a second to understand the question, a long second of not getting lost in Levi’s cold gray eyes, and then he perked up when he finally understood what Levi was asking. “Oh! No, we’re getting lunch once he’s done.”

            Levi nodded in understanding and looked back at the ice. Just as Eren had resumed watching Armin’s practice, Levi spoke again.

            “Didn’t know Arlert had a boyfriend.”

            Eren didn’t know what Levi meant by that. Well, obviously he knew what the words meant, but did he and Armin really come across as dating? Eren didn’t think so. And even if Levi did assume that, why would he say that? It was strange.

            “We’re not dating,” Eren said, a bit harsher than he had intended.

            Levi ‘hmph’ed and nodded and went back to watching the practice.

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            Eren and Levi sat in silence until Armin skated over to the edge of the rink and stepped out, putting plastic guards on his blades.

            “Eren!” the boy called out when he spotted his friend. Once he finished putting on the guards he walked over to the bleachers and sat on Eren’s free side to start taking off his skates. “We can leave as soon as I go change.”

            The coach, who had been writing something on a clipboard at the edge of the rink, finished his notes and walked over to join the others.

            “Where are you going?” he asked.

            “We’re getting lunch at that new café that opened up a few blocks from here,” Armin replied.

            “Oh, I’ve been meaning to try that place out. Supposedly it’s pretty good,” the coach responded.

            “Yeah, and cheap,” Eren added.

            The coach looked at Eren as if he hadn’t really noticed him there before. “Sorry, I didn’t introduce myself,” the man said, extending a hand. Eren shook it. The man had a tight grip. “I’m Erwin, I coach Armin and Levi.” Levi, for his part, looked entirely disinterested in the conversation.

            Armin, however, finished pulling off his skates and said, “You should join us. At the café. Since you’ve been meaning to try it and all.” Eren looked curiously at Armin. Armin had always been the type to be friendly, but he was acting a little nervous, which was weird. The only time Eren had seem him act like this before was around people that he had a crush on… He would definitely have to talk to him about this later.

            “I couldn’t intrude…” Erwin said.

            “Oh, you wouldn’t be intruding at all!” Armin insisted. “Right, Eren?”

            Well, what harm could there be in letting him come? “Yeah, no problem,” he confirmed.

            Next to Eren, Levi stood up, and Armin and Erwin seemed to notice for the first time that he was there. Armin must have thought it was rude to invite Erwin and not him, Eren thought, because Armin quickly asked, “Are you coming too, Levi?”

            Levi took a long time to answer, and when he did he was staring at Eren.

            “Sure,” he said curtly, before he turned and walked out of the room.

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            The café was only a couple blocks away, so they ended up walking. Unfortunately, the way things worked out, Armin was in front walking beside Erwin, leaving Eren to walk in silence next to Levi. He tried to think of something to say, but he got so intimidated whenever he glanced over that he couldn’t think of anything at all. Besides, Levi didn’t seem like the kind of person to enjoy small talk. In Eren’s defense, Levi wasn’t making any effort at conversation, either.

            This only continued once they were at the café and had gotten their food and coffee. Eren sat next to Armin, but his friend was still deep in conversation with his coach, who sat across from him. This left Eren poking at his sandwich and glancing up at Levi to see if he would be interested in a conversation.

            At one point Eren decided he’d had enough of the silence and he would try to talk to Levi, no matter how intimidating the man was.

            “So,” he said after a sip of coffee. “Armin told me you went to the Olympics. What was that like?”

            Levi didn’t answer for a minute, and Eren felt like the man was trying to stare into his soul or shoot laser beams at him with his eyes to destroy him. He really was quite intimidating.

            “Busy,” was all Levi said when he finally answered.

            Well, at least Eren had tried to make conversation, even if it had been a complete failure. He focused on eating his sandwich for the next few minutes before he was once again bothered by the feeling of Levi staring at him over his coffee cup. Eren put his sandwich down and looked up at Levi.

            “Um,” Eren began, sounding like the intelligent college student he was. “So… How did practice go today?”

            Levi once again contemplated the question before answering. “It’s not like you know anything about skating,” he said. “So why would you bother asking?”

            That bothered Eren. All he was doing was trying to be nice and a normal person making normal conversation, and here this guy is treating him like a child. “I’m just trying to make conversation,” Eren shot back. He wished he could join Armin and Erwin’s conversation, but they seemed to be talking about skating and a bunch of technical terms went in one of Eren’s ears and out the other when he had tried to pay attention to it.

            “Well, it’s generally not a good idea to start a conversation about something you know nothing about,” Levi replied, not looking irritated at all. Rather, he looked almost bored.

            “ _Sorry_ for asking a question that would require an answer as complex as ‘good’ or ‘ok’!” Eren snapped back, standing up and slapping his hands on the table. Armin and Erwin’s conversation died when they heard the argument next to them, and they both looked from Eren to Levi, trying to judge if a major fight was about to break out.

            But instead Levi smirked and let out a small “hmph,” as if he found the situation funny in some way.

            When Eren realized that Levi wasn’t going to respond in any other way, he sat back down and picked at his sandwich. Armin seemed to have realized that he’d been ignoring Eren, and for the rest of lunch he tried to include Eren in his conversations with Erwin, trying to keep the topic off skating and on something all three of them could talk about. None of them tried to include Levi again, and Eren tried not to feel guilty about that. As he poked at his sandwich and tried to keep up with Armin and Erwin’s conversation, however, he realized his appetite was gone.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            Armin had to run back inside the rink to get his bag from his locker, since he hadn’t wanted to lug it all the way to the café and back. Eren said that he would wait outside, not sure if he’d be able to keep a comfortable conversation going with Erwin without Armin around, and not even wanting to attempt speaking to Levi again. He figured he’d be better off waiting outside alone in the crisp Fall air.

            However, Levi didn’t follow Armin and Erwin back inside, instead lingering outside, not looking at Eren. Eren stared for a bit, then tried to stare at anything _but_ Levi, then when he felt Levi’s eyes on him he took out his phone to check his email or Facebook or play a game or anything to seem occupied.

            Just a bit after he unlocked his phone, though, it was taken out of his hands. Levi was taking a few steps away, doing something with his phone. Eren shouted, “Hey!” and tried to take his phone back, but Levi’s free hand blocked all of his attempts. Eventually Eren gave up and just pouted to himself, hoping Levi wasn’t doing anything embarrassing.

            Less than a minute later, Levi held Eren’s phone back out to him. It took Eren a moment to notice it, but he snatched it back as soon as he did. He was about to say something, ask Levi what he had done, but before he got the chance Levi had already strode into the building, leaving Eren gaping after him.

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            It wasn’t until he was in the car with Armin on the way back to their apartment that he found out why Levi had taken his phone earlier, when his phone buzzed in his hand and he saw he had a text message from a contact Eren hadn’t added simply named “Levi.” The message read:

_Practice went well today._


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren goes to Mikasa for advice. Mikasa is not very good at giving advice. Eren freaks out a lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is much longer than this pathetically short one, I promise. 
> 
> Also eventually I will have a standardized format for chapters and decide if I want to indent my paragraphs or not. Today is not that day.
> 
> Remember you can follow/bug me with questions/keep me company in my lonely life on tumblr at downtheupstairs!

Eren spent the rest of the day wondering what exactly he was supposed to do now. Levi obviously went through the trouble of making sure Eren had his number and that he could text him, but he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to respond. What is one supposed to say in response to that? He had no clue.

He would have asked Armin about it, but by the time Eren had gotten over his shock, they were already back at the apartment and Armin had to go to work. So, after about an hour of staring at the text message in his room, Eren barged into Mikasa’s room.

Mikasa looked up from her studying when she heard the door open.

“Nice of you to knock,” she said.

“Mikasa I don’t know what to do,” Eren whined, flopping down on her bed. He’d never been very good about personal boundaries, particularly when it came to Mikasa and Armin.

“Well, you could do the homework I know you must have,” the girl offered.

“No, not about that,” Eren replied, his voice muffled by Mikasa’s pillows. He turned over and opened his phone to look at the message again.

“So I met this guy Armin trains with an he’s kind of an ass to me and he was especially an ass to me when we went to lunch because he and Armin’s coach joined us and then when we got back to the rink he took my phone and got my number and then on the way back he texted me and I don’t know what to do because he’s an asshole but he’s _so pretty_ ,” Eren explained in one breath.

Mikasa put down her pencil and turned to face Eren. “And?”

“ _And_ what do I _do_?” Eren whined. “Do I text him back? Do I call him? Do I ignore him?"

“Why are you asking me?” Mikasa asked. “I’m terrible with this kind of stuff.”

“Armin’s at work,” Eren said as his reason for resorting to Mikasa’s relationship advice.

Mikasa sighed. “Well… I don’t know. Do you want to text him back?”

Eren pulled Mikasa’s pillow over his face and said in a quiet, muffled voice, “Yeah.” He couldn’t believe he liked Levi. He should hate him; he’s been such an ass to him.

“Then text him,” Mikasa decided.

Eren dropped the pillow on the floor. “But _what_ do I text him?” he asked earnestly.

“What did he text you?”

“He said ‘practice went well today.’”

“That’s weird.”

“No, it had to do with something we’d been talking about before. Kind of a joke, I think.”

“You think?”

“It’s hard to tell with him.”

Mikasa sighed. “Well… why don’t you text him back about something you’d been talking about also?”

Eren considered this for a minute, then shot up. “I’ve got it!” he exclaimed, and then he ran to his own room to text in private.

Mikasa sighed again when Eren left and got up to clean up the mess he’d managed to make in only a couple minutes of being in her room. Sometimes she wondered why she even put up with that boy.

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

_You know, you could’ve just asked me for my number._

Eren stared at the message he’d typed out, wanting it to be absolutely perfect before he hit ‘send.’ He thought it was pretty good. It wasn’t too serious, it seemed like a normal thing to say, pretty casual. Eren chewed his lip as he reread it a few more times. When he finally hit ‘send,’ he tossed his phone onto the bed beside him and stared up at the ceiling, wondering what he was getting himself into.

He scrambled for his phone a few minutes later when he felt it buzz, simultaneously hoping that it was and was not a response from Levi. It was.

_That wouldn’t have been as much fun._

God, did he always have to say things that were so hard to respond to? Eren was frustrated. He contemplated bugging Mikasa again, but she wouldn’t be too much help. And he couldn’t bother Armin at work. He’d have to figure this one out on his own.

_You don’t seem like the type to like having ‘fun’._

Was that too mean? Well, Levi himself was mean, so maybe he’d appreciate it? Eren had no clue. He didn’t let him think too much about this response before hitting send and getting it over with. He kept his eyes closed until he felt his phone buzz again.

_And what would you know about the ‘type’ of person I am?_

Eren thought even less about this response.

_I know you don’t like small talk. You don’t like to take compliments unless you feel they’re deserved. I know you like to insult people you just met. You’d also rather steal people’s phones to get their numbers rather than ask like a normal person._

Eren didn’t worry about what he’d sent until ten minutes passed and he didn’t receive a response. He was about to send a message apologizing for something that he didn’t even know he did wrong when his phone buzzed.

_You seem to know a lot about me._

Eren let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding and started a response.

_But I don’t, really. That’s not a lot at all._

He sent it and immediately started typing another message. His thumb hovered over the ‘send’ key, but he didn’t let himself think too much about whether he was being too forward before he forced himself to hit the button.

_I’d like to, though._

Oh God, he couldn’t believe he just sent that. He was dead. He was dead and either Levi killed him for being that forward or he had a heart attack and just died. There was no way he just sent that message.

Eren was still burying his face in his pillow when he felt his phone buzz. It took him a minute to build up the courage to see the insult that Levi had surely responded with. To his surprise, however, he didn’t find a message containing an insult but instructions.

_7 PM tomorrow. Sina Restaurant on West 5 th Street. Wear something nice._

Holy fuck. Holy fuck holy fuck holy fuck.

Eren stopped breathing for a full minute when he read the message, only starting again when he realized he needed to gasp for air. After his brain functions seemed to return, Eren scrambled out of bed and into Mikasa’s room.

“MIKASA!” he yelled, even though the girl was only a few feet away. She turned to glare at him for barging in again. “I have a date!” Eren finished, his voice equal parts excitement and sheer terror.

Mikasa sighed and stood up, grabbing Eren by the shoulder and pushing him out of her room.

“That’s great, Eren,” she said unenthusiastically. “But I have a chem test on Monday, so please freak out somewhere else.” She then promptly shut the door in Eren’s face.

He didn’t care, though. He realized he should confirm to Levi that he’s coming, and so he rushed back to his room and sat on the floor, leaning back against his bed.

He ran through several options of how to say yes to this date, not wanting to seem too excited but all the while being _so_ excited. Eventually, however, he settled on the simplest answer.

_Ok._


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mama Mikasa and Papa Armin help Eren get ready for his date. Levi and Eren eat fancy food. Eren's actually not a dumbass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo I'm lazy and don't write much over spring break! But here's the date! Yay!
> 
> Eren is learning German because I'm learning German and I WILL USE ANY EXCUSE TO EXPLOIT MY KNOWLEDGE.
> 
> As always, feel free to ask me deep philosophical questions about the meaning of life at my tumblr, downtheupstairs!

“ARMIN I AM HAVING A CRISIS.”

From the desk in the room he shared with Eren, Armin sighed. There was no way he was going to get any homework done until Eren left, was there? Ever since he had gotten home last night, Eren had been bombarding his friend with questions about Levi or random fears for his date. If Armin didn’t know any better, he’d have thought this was the Eren’s first ever date, but he knew Eren had had a couple of boyfriends before. Granted, he got freaked out for the first dates with them, too, just not to this extent.

For his part, Eren didn’t think Armin was being very helpful. “I don’t see how you train every morning with this guy and know next to nothing about him!” Eren had said at one point, exasperated.

“We don’t really have much time to talk during practice. And you’ve met him, you know how good he is at making conversation,” Armin had replied, not removing his nose from the book he had to read for class. “If you really want to know more about him, you could always check his Wikipedia page.”

 _That_ had shut Eren up for a while, as he’d scoured the page like there was some hidden secret in the lines. He’d also clicked on the sources that led to interviews with the man – he was already doing more research for a guy than he did for some of his school essays – and read or watched those too. It seemed like Levi’s standoffish attitude continued in front of reporters, too. He always gave very blunt responses. He definitely was not very personable.

But eventually, on Sunday afternoon after Armin got back from practice and Eren got back from his morning shift at work, Eren had resumed his freak-out.

“What is it now, Eren? Armin asked patiently from his desk. Eren was standing with his face stuffed in his closet, so he had a bit of an idea.

“ _I have no idea what to wear_ ,” Eren groaned. Armin laughed and Eren whipped his head around to glare at his friend. “This isn’t funny! He said to ‘wear something nice.’” What’s nice?! Like, jeans and a sweater nice or three piece suit nice? _What does nice mean?_ ” In his rant, Eren had come forward to grip Armin’s shoulders to add emphasis. Armin gently pried Eren’s fingers off of him.

“Ok. Calm down,” Armin said, knowing it would be mostly in vain. Eren had already resumed glaring at his closet. “Did he say where you were going? Maybe that could help.”

“Yes!” Eren exclaimed, diving onto his bed to get his phone. He already had the message memorized, but he didn’t want to mess up the name of the place by accident. “He said,” Eren said as he found the message, “’7 PM tomorrow. Sina Restaurant on West 5th Street. Wear something nice.”

Armin swiveled in his chair towards his desk and opened his laptop, grumbling about Eren already getting dressed for a date that was four hours away. He searched the name of the restaurant and pulled up it’s website.

“Wow,” Armin couldn’t help but say as he looked at the pictures of the restaurant and food. “Yeah, definitely wear a tie,” he said, still entranced. He was afraid to click on the menu and see how expensive this place was. Eren had come closer and was watching over Armin’s shoulder.

“Holy shit,” he said. “I can’t do this, Armin. What if there’s more than one fork? How do I know which one to use? I’ve never been anywhere this fancy. Ugh, why couldn’t we have just gone to like IHOP or something?”

“You’d really rather go to IHOP than this place?” Armin asked, sarcastically. “And anyways, you’ll do fine. I doubt Levi will care if you mess up the forks or whatever. Just enjoy it. It’ll be fine.”

“Right,” Eren said, calming down. “Fine.” He then turned back to his closet to find something to wear.

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Later, as Eren fixed his tie in the mirror – he’d ended up in slacks, a button-down shirt, and a tie; Armin had suggested a suit jacket, but he didn’t own one – there was a flash and he turned to see Armin and Mikasa in the doorway, Mikasa holding a camera.

“Why are you taking pictures?” Eren complained.

“Well, you’re acting like you’re getting married, so we figured we should record the moment for posterity.” Mikasa said.

“And besides,” Armin added, “You never get dressed up! It’s our duty to take a million pictures of you whenever you do so.”

Eren couldn’t hold back a smile, but he still groaned. He grabbed his coat and put it on – Mikasa snapping another photo as he did so – and pulled both of them into a hug. “Thanks mom and dad,” he said. They had always sort of acted like his parents – more than his actual dad ever did – so sometimes they’d taken on the obnoxious parts of the role also, such as by taking pictures. Eren figured he could grant them one group photo before he left, so he turned in the hug so he had an arm around each of their shoulders and pulled them close. Mikasa got the message and held out the camera, snapping a picture of the three of them.

They got out of their cramped position and Eren hugged each of them individually.

“Thanks, guys,” he said, knowing he’d been obnoxious the past day or so, freaking out about this.

“No problem,” Mikasa said, heading back into her room to keep studying.

Armin straightened Eren’s tie again. “Good luck,” he said, smiling. “And Eren, just remember, start with the fork on the outside and work your way in.”

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ok, so Eren had gotten there a little early. Half an hour early. He decided it was too soon to go into the restaurant, so he window-shopped along the street to pass the time. This was a nice part of the city, so all of the shops along the sidewalk sold things so expensive Eren could never dream to afford even a keychain from one of them. He’d never understood rich people. Why would you pay $1,000 for a shirt? What makes that white button-down shirt in the store window any better than the one that he was wearing, that he’d gotten for $20 at a sale at Macy’s?

It was while Eren was scrutinizing the shirt in the window that he heard a familiar voice.

“Looking for a shirt that fits, brat?”

He turned to see Levi looking… amazing. He was wearing a suit, and Eren had always been one to think that a suit is just a suit, but on Levi that suit was a piece of art. It fit him perfectly, and it was so black and smooth-looking and-

“Should I pick up your jaw for you, or are you going to take care of that by yourself?”

Eren turned beet red, realizing he’d been gawking, and tried to look anywhere but at Levi as he laughed off his embarrassment.

“Heh, well… you look really good…”

One side of Levi’s lips quirked up in a bit of a smirk. “You don’t look terrible yourself.”

Eren looked at Levi, shocked to receive a compliment, and smiled, ecstatic. Levi rolled his eyes.

“All right, all right. You don’t have to break your face because I gave you a compliment.”

That just made Eren smile brighter, and his enthusiasm didn’t diminish as he let Levi lead them to the restaurant, where he had apparently made a reservation.

It was a good thing Eren had decided to wear a tie, because even in that and his dress shirt, he still felt a bit underdressed. He was completely out of his league as they were sat at a table with a long tablecloth and a full set of silverware already set up. Eren reminded himself what Armin had said about the forks. Outside, in. Ok. How many courses would there be, anyway? Eren was used to only having a main course at restaurants, and maybe an appetizer or dessert.

The menu was a whole other battle. First of all, Eren couldn’t imagine ordering _anything_ besides a glass of water once he saw the prices. And that’s not to mention that he was pretty sure half the menu was not in English. What the hell was a “foie gras”? Was that _escargot_ on the menu? Eren didn’t know real people actually ate that stuff. He thought it was something somebody had made up. Who wants to eat fish eggs? That sounds disgusting.

Apparently Levi noticed Eren’s dilemma. He pushed down the top of the menu that Eren had subconsciously huddled into to reveal Eren’s face.

“Do you like steak?” he asked.

Eren furrowed his brow in confusion. “Yes?”

“Ok. Get the prime rib.”

Eren scanned the menu to see where it was. _Holy shit_ it was expensive. His eyes widened when he saw the price and he began shaking his head. “Woah, no,” he said, putting his menu down. “I can’t order that. Did you _see_ the price? I’ll… I’ll just stick to water.” As if to prove his point, Eren put down his menu and took a sip of his complimentary glass of water.

Levi looked frustrated. He also looked like he was trying very hard to contain that frustration as he put a hand on his forehead and closed his eyes. “ _Eren_. I brought you here for a reason. I know the prices. I can read. You’re not just having water,” he said, sounding like he was speaking to a petulant child.

A waiter showed up at their table then and asked if they were ready to order. Before Eren could say anything, Levi had given the waiter his own order and added, “and he’ll have the prime rib. Medium rare.”

Well, Eren supposed that that was one way to solve his problem, having Levi order it for him, he thought as Levi finished talking with the waiter. At least now he didn’t feel bad about the cost Levi would be paying – Eren knew for sure that there was no way he’d be paying for this meal; he didn’t think he had enough in his bank account at the moment.

The waiter took their menus and left the table, leaving Eren and Levi alone again. Levi took a sip of his water as Eren played with his hands in his lap. There was an awkward silence.

Eventually, Eren decided to break the tension. “Sorry for that… I’ve never really been anywhere this fancy.”

Levi smirked over his water glass. “I assumed as much.”

“But how can you afford all this?” Eren asked. “I mean, Armin works and he and I still have to share a room in the apartment.”

It might have been a trick of the dim restaurant lighting, but Eren thought he might have seen a bit of a twitch in Levi’s eye when he said that he and Armin shared a room. Levi put his glass down and said, “Well, Armin doesn’t have an Olympic medal. Yet.”

Eren was happy that Levi seemed to think Armin would be able to get an Olympic medal, but he was mostly confused as to what Levi meant. After a moment, he clarified.

“Sponsorships. Between that and family money,” he gestured to their surroundings to fill in the rest of the sentence.

Eren let that work its way through his brain and thought of the very intelligent answer, “Oh.”

Thankfully, then a waiter appeared with a bottle of wine and filled a glass for Levi. He looked to Eren, questioning if he wanted a glass too, to which Eren quickly shook his head and said, “Oh, no, I’m good thanks.”

The waiter left and Eren noticed Levi was looking at Eren with a curious look on his face.

“What?” Eren asked.

“How old are you?” Levi asked.

Oh, so that’s what Levi was wondering. Eren had realized there was an age difference, not only because the man just _seemed_ older but because he’d seen on Levi’s Wikipedia page that he was twenty-eight.

“Nineteen.”

Levi nodded like this answered many questions for him. Eren wondered what they were, but decided they weren’t close enough to ask.

There was another silence for a while, but it wasn’t quite as awkward as before. Levi took a few sips of his wine and Eren sipped at his water.

“So you go to school, right?” Levi asked after a while.

“Yeah,” Eren answered. “Armin, Mikasa, and I go to Trost. University.” He added the last word as an afterthought, so used to just calling it ‘Trost’ among his friends who went to the school. “Of course, Armin only goes part time, because of the skating and all, but Mikasa and I go full-time.”

“Who’s Mikasa?”

“Oh, she’s my stepsister.”

“Ah.” Levi looked contemplative for a moment, as if he was digesting this new information about Eren’s family. “What are you studying?”

“I’m majoring in mechanical engineering and doing a minor in German.”

“Mechanical engineering?” Eren could have sworn Levi looked impressed.

“Yeah. It’s hard, but it’s cool, y’know?”

Levi nodded, though he himself couldn’t fathom why anyone would want to subject themselves to that much math. He decided to leave it and move to a different subject. “Why German?”

“Well, I mean… my ancestors are German, so that’s part of the reason. But mostly because it’s a good language to know if you’re an engineer.”

Levi nodded, looking impressed again, as if he didn’t expect someone like Eren to have so carefully planned out his college career. He decided that he’d been asking too many questions so it was time to say something about himself. He had never been the greatest at conversation, but he found himself invested in keeping this one with Eren going smoothly.

“I speak French,” he said.

“I know,” Eren replied before thinking about it. Levi furrowed his brow, confused as to how Eren would know that about him. Eren, realizing his mistake, blushed and looked down at his plate. “I, uh… might have looked at your Wikipedia page.”

Levi chuckled silently.

“Sorry…” Eren said.

“Why?” Levi asked. “If you had one, I’d have looked at it too.”

Eren allowed himself to relax and was able to look at Levi without embarrassment again. Their food came shortly after that – a small salad course first, then soup, then their food, and then Levi ordered them each a slice of a marvelous cheesecake for dessert. They kept up a steady conversation throughout the entire meal. Eren talked about school and his friends and raved about how amazing the food was. Levi mostly asked Eren about his life, but every now and then would mention something about himself, or Eren would ask him a question about something like how he got started skating.

Before Eren knew it, Levi was paying the bill – Eren definitely did not even want to think about what the price of that meal had been – and they were leaving the restaurant. There was another awkward moment outside the restaurant when they didn’t know if they were separating or not, so they just stood there for a moment.

“Well… I took the bus here…” Eren said, motioning to the bus stop down the block. “So I’ll just…” He started walking away, but Levi caught his hand.

“I drove. I’ll give you a ride home.”

He didn’t give Eren a chance to protest – not that he had planned on it – before leading Eren around the block to where he had parked his car.

It was _much_ nicer than Armin’s beat up old clunker. “A 2012 S600 Mercedes?” Eren asked as he walked around to the passenger-side door of the sleek black car.

“Um… yes?” Levi said as he got in the car, not really knowing what Eren was talking about.

Eren laughed. He’d finally found something Levi didn’t really know about, and it felt good. “It’s the model of your car. It’s nice. Expensive.”

Levi just shrugged and started the car. Eren gave him directions back to his apartment while playing around with all the buttons and features on the dashboard. Levi let him have his fun. He didn’t particularly take advantage of all the car had to offer, just using the radio as he drove to and from practice every day. Someone might as well play with all the features he had paid for.

When they reached his street, Eren pointed out his building and Levi pulled into a lucky free spot in front of the building, putting the car in park. Eren unbuckled his seatbelt and it didn’t take more than a quick moment of eye contact with Levi for Eren to be all over him.

Though Eren started the kiss, Levi quickly took control of it, feeling the need to reign the boy in, since he had the enthusiasm of an eager puppy and Levi feared that Eren would try to eat him if he let him have control over it. Levi forced the kiss to slow, carefully probing into Eren’s mouth with his tongue and tasting the lingering taste of the cheesecake they’d had for dessert. He nibbled at Eren’s lip before kissing down Eren’s jaw and onto his neck, fully intending to leave a hickey. He didn’t care if it was a childish thing to do – he liked the idea of Eren going back to his room and his roommates not needing to ask him how his date went because they could see the bruise forming on his neck.

Levi had just finished his hickey and had moved back to Eren’s mouth when the boy gently pushed him away. Eren had grasped the lapels of Levi’s suit in his fists, but Levi didn’t mind the wrinkling at all right now. Eren was panting after he pulled away, and he rested his forehead on Levi’s and groaned.

“My roommates are home…” he complained. Levi was fully prepared to offer to drive them back to his apartment – fuck the whole ‘don’t sleep together on the first date’ thing, he hadn’t had sex in a while – but Eren was ready to shut that down, too. “And I have class tomorrow morning.”

Levi wanted to say fuck his classes and fuck his own morning training, but he knew that that wasn’t a smart idea, and he should probably be the responsible adult, so he pulled away more fully and sat back in his seat. He tried to ignore how Eren seemed to be giving him the sad puppy-dog eyes, because he was already tempted enough to shuck their responsibilities to have sex. Instead, he let himself and Eren calm down. After a minute, Eren leaned over the center console and gave Levi a chaste kiss on the lips.

“Another time?” he asked, hopeful.

Levi grabbed a fistful of Eren’s hair and pulled him in for another short kiss, this time much more powerful. When he let go of Eren’s hair to let him pull away from the kiss, he confirmed, “Another time.”

Eren smiled and began to exit the car. “Ok,” he said, grinning just as stupidly happy as he had been at the beginning of their date. “I’ll text you.” He left and went into his apartment building, and he didn’t stop smiling the entire elevator ride up to their floor, into their apartment, and was still smiling even as he flopped down on his bed. He could hear Armin asking him how it went but for a little while, Eren was too happy to notice anything but the pounding of his own heart. Eventually, Armin’s questions got through to him, and Eren turned onto his back and clutched a pillow to his chest, smiling at the ceiling as he responded.

“It went well.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren goes to his friends for advice. Reiner's a bit oblivious. Eren takes initiative in his budding relationship with Levi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! I've actually had this chapter written for a while, but I like to be one chapter ahead when I post and it took me forever to write the next one.
> 
> As always, my tumblr is downtheupstairs if you want to ask me for crappy advice or opinions on life, the universe, and everything.

The next morning, after his early classes – someone should go back in time and shoot him for taking a class at eight o’clock on Monday mornings – Eren went to the dining hall for lunch with his friends and found himself staring at his phone. Levi would be out of practice by now… he wondered if he should text.

It didn’t take long for his friends to get annoyed with him.

“What the fuck are you staring at?” Jean so eloquently asked.

Eren finally looked up and balked. “Huh?”

“You’ve been staring at your phone for like ten minutes,” Marco explained. “You haven’t even taken a bite of your food.”

Eren blushed. “Oh.”

“So who’s the lucky girl, huh?” Reiner asked, elbowing Eren. Everybody around the table, including Eren, stopped what they were doing and stared at Reiner.

“Dude,” Jean said.

Berthold leaned in to whisper into Reiner’s ear.

“Oh,” Reiner reacted. “ _Oh, okay._ ” He clapped Eren on the shoulder. “So, who’s the lucky _guy_?”

Everyone around the table laughed at Reiner’s ignorance. How he had somehow missed that Eren was gay was a mystery. He and Bert had been obviously fooling around since forever, so Reiner himself was into guys in some way. Apparently he just had no gaydar.

Eventually, however, the attention settled on Eren again as they all waited for his answer. “Um… it’s just this guy I went out with last night. Should I text him? I should text him.”

“Woah, no, you _cannot_ text him,” Jean said. “You gotta wait forty-eight hours. That’s the rule.”

“That’s a stupid rule,” Annie said, her face still in her textbook.

Jean grumbled in defiance while the rest of the table threw in their own opinions. The conversation took up the rest of their time eating and soon Eren was going to his next class, no formal decision about whether or not Eren should text Levi made. It was a small, discussion-based class, unfortunately – one of his general educations requirements – so he wasn’t able to really think about Levi, but he had plenty of time to stare at his phone on the walk back to his apartment, as if staring at it would provide him an answer.

He did run into a few people and lampposts, but by the time he’d reached the apartment he decided to text him. He just needed to decide what to write. That took another hour lying on his bed in his room that he should have spent doing homework, still staring at Levi’s contact page in his phone. He had to plug it in because his phone was starting to die, but after about an hour, he decided what to say. Really, it shouldn’t have taken him that long, since the text was simple. He ended up sending:

_How did practice go today?_

That’d be good, right? That had kind of been a joke between them, Eren thought, but if he’d been wrong in assuming that, it’d still be a normal question to ask. So he sent the message and then left his phone on the bedside table and tried to focus on his homework. He worked for a good hour and a half – in that time Armin came home and began his own homework – before he heard his phone chime.

Eren may or may not have completely tripped over his desk chair in his scramble to get to his phone. Like he had expected, it was a reply from Levi.

_It went well._

Eren flopped onto his bed, staring at his phone again, this time with a goofy grin on his face. He stayed there for a minute, happy that he and Levi seemed to have this sort of inside joke going on.

Then he realized that he should probably send something back, and he had absolutely no clue what that should be. “Armin!” he called, even though his friend was in the same room. Even that didn’t work, though, because Armin had his headphones on. So Eren had to get up and go over to his roommate and pull his headphones off.

“Armin,” Eren said, putting his hands on Armin’s shoulders and looking him in the eyes.

“What now,” Armin said, exasperated.

“What should I text Levi back?”

Armin rolled his eyes. He sincerely hoped that Eren wouldn’t be like this for as long as he and Levi dated. He was happy at the same time, though, because he’d never seen Eren this worked up over a guy. And from what he saw of Levi at practice – though the man’s emotions were almost always completely hidden – he seemed to be a bit happier, too. So Armin was excited to see where this relationship would go.

He asked what Levi had said and Eren explained what he’d sent and received in reply, and then Armin thought. That actually _was_ a tough message to reply to, so he could see why Eren would need help.

“You could always ask him on a second date,” he suggested.

Eren’s eyes grew wide. “No I can’t,” he said quickly.

“Why not?”

“Because…” Eren paused as he searched for an answer. “Because… I mean, Jean said I shouldn’t have even texted him for another day! Isn’t asking him out too much?”

Armin sighed. “Just do it casually. Ask him if he’d like to go to a movie or something this Friday.”

“I have to wait until Friday?”

Sometimes Armin couldn’t believe his friend. He had _just_ been complaining about how he’d texted Levi too soon, and now he couldn’t wait until Friday to see him? “I don’t know, Eren,” he said, “Just ask him out for whenever. I know you want to see him again, so just do it.”

“And you think he’ll say yes?”

“I think so. He’s seemed a bit happier the past couple days, but he’s not exactly the easiest guy to read.”

Eren thought about this. “So, you don’t think it’d be a bad idea to ask him to like, dinner on Wednesday?”

“I mean, when he asked you out, he asked you out for the next evening. So yeah, I think you should go for it. And then you should actually do your homework and let me get back to mine.”

Eren blushed. “Sorry,” he said. “And thanks. I know I’m being annoying but…” he trailed off, not wanting to say anything too cheesy or sentimental, especially since he’s only known Levi for a little bit.

Armin smiled gently at his friend. “I know,” he said. “Don’t worry about it. It’s good to see you happy.”

Eren walked back to his bed, smiling, and flopped down to type out his message.

_Would you want to go out with me on Wednesday?_

He looked at what he’d written and frowned. He deleted the message and began again.

_Do you want to get dinner with me on Wednesday?_

He liked that better. It was much more casual, he thought. He read it over a couple more times and hit ‘send.’

This time, he didn’t have to wait an hour for his response. Just a couple minutes later, his phone chimed in his hand.

_Sure. I’ll pick you up at 7?_

Eren responded that that sounded good and stared at his ceiling for a while, thinking about where he’d take Levi. He’d just worked himself into a bit of a worry when Armin reminded him to work on his homework. He put those thoughts aside as he tried to understand his calculus. He was sure it’d work out somehow.


End file.
